Celebrating International Women’s Day in San Francisco:The Risks of Ingenuity

March 2012

On March 6, Citi and Financial Women’s Association of San Francisco (FWA) joined together to recognize International Women’s Day in San Francisco. The event celebrated the economic accomplishments and advancement of women, featuring a panel of business leaders on the subject of ingenuity and taking risks.

Donna Bedford, President of The Bedford Group, offered a brief history of International Women’s Day and challenged the audience “to be inspired” before briefly introducing the panelists. Over the next hour, Tracey Warson, Global Market Manager of the Western Region for Citi Private Bank; Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann, President of Citibank California; and Linda Whittaker, Senior Associate General Counsel for Walmart Stores provided insight on ingenuity, inspiration and innovation. The panelists shared stories and discussed a range of topics, including the meaning of ingenuity, how to drive and inspire innovation, and stumbling blocks that they encountered in their career. Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann advised the audience to create the space and time to innovate, and to only focus on ideas that will make a “leap” over current practices. Tracey Warson added that you must always “challenge the process and the way things have been done ... and create new solutions” to achieve ingenuity.

The discussion provided myriad words of wisdom and advice for the audience. Linda Whittaker dared the audience to “be yourself” and to “get a vision” of where you want to be in your career. Tracey Warson encouraged everyone to “make sure people know your contributions so that your voice is heard,” and to “think big.” And Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann reminded the audience to “have more fun along the way.” —Contributed by Betsabe Botaitis-Martinez